Thursday, August 5, 2010

Kathleen Koch's new book, Rising From Katrina, is being released as we approach the 5th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Baldwin County NOW. comrecently posted this interview with the former CNN reporter.In the memoir, Koch discusses growing up in Bay St. Louis, Miss.; explores how Hurricane Katrina devastated the city and neighboring coastal communities; and the way that shining a national spotlight on the plight of all coastal residents prevented anyone from becoming a mere footnote in the shadow of New Orleans.“I didn’t want to write just another hurricane book,” Koch said during a recent phone interview from the Clarksville, Md. home she shares with her husband and two daughters. “I wanted people to see the bigger view. These became life and death decisions — whether to stay, whether to go. And the recovery is not a sprint. It’s a marathon.”

FAIRHOPE, Ala. — A reporter usually learns early in their career they should never become personally involved in a story. But if Kathleen Koch hadn’t made a conscious (and long-thought-out) decision to instead do that very thing, an entire community might have been forgotten in the aftermath of one of this nation’s worst natural disasters.

Former CNN White House correspondent Kathleen Koch stands amidst the rubble in Bay St. Louis, Miss., not long after Hurricane Katrina nearly wiped the town off the map. Her new book, “Rising From Katrina: How My Mississippi Hometown Lost It All And Found What Mattered,” is a lesson about how the human spirit can overcome adversity, even when there seems to be little hope left. Photo by Skip Nocciolo/CNN.

The former CNN correspondent will be at Page & Palette, 32 S. Section St. in Fairhope, on Aug. 4, from 6-8 p.m., to sign copies of “Rising From Katrina: How My Mississippi Hometown Lost It All And Found What Mattered.”

In the memoir, Koch discusses growing up in Bay St. Louis, Miss.; explores how Hurricane Katrina devastated the city and neighboring coastal communities; and the way that shining a national spotlight on the plight of all coastal residents prevented anyone from becoming a mere footnote in the shadow of New Orleans.

“I didn’t want to write just another hurricane book,” Koch said during a recent phone interview from the Clarksville, Md. home she shares with her husband and two daughters. “I wanted people to see the bigger view. These became life and death decisions — whether to stay, whether to go. And the recovery is not a sprint. It’s a marathon.”

Koch said the story’s framework first centers on her family moving to Bay St. Louis when she was a teen, and how Hurricane Camille (1969) was at the time the benchmark storm to which future events were compared. As residents from Louisiana to Alabama soon discovered, Katrina’s bite would turn out to be much worse than her bark.

In fact, the physical and emotional scars left by the 2005 storm have not yet faded for many residents there, and those profiled in Koch’s book are not unlike our own neighbors — hardworking men and women, some of whom are still struggling to put the experience behind them.

Although there are dramatic accounts in the book about people struggling to survive as the storm’s wind and waves batter the Gulf Coast, Koch uses them sparingly, choosing to focus on how disasters can bring folks together for the common good.

“I write as a journalist does, about the people with the most compelling stories,” she said. “By telling a story (about people clinging to trees) 10 times, however, the dramatic can become mundane. It’s about people sharing their emotions and thoughts.”

The 24-hour television news cycle, along with the “if it bleeds, it leads” mentality, can often result in such human drama being swept under the rug. Koch said CNN management was very generous though in giving her permission, time and the resources needed to file reports from the Mississippi coast not once, but several times as the weeks and months passed.

She said, “John Klein was the president of CNN at the time. He saw my report. He saw the emotion. He saw how intensely personal it was. He saw that here was someone who could tell the story.”

The network’s coverage of Katrina’s impact earned a George Foster Peabody Award, as Koch anchored several special documentaries that updated the progress made in the years following the storm.

She credits local elected leaders and residents with knowing what needed to be done and acting quickly to accomplish it, even as the Federal Emergency Management Agency sat on the sidelines, mired in bureaucratic snafus.

“On the Mississippi coast, they choose their politicians well,” Koch said. “They would give anything for the town, the place, the people there — to bring it all back the way it was. It’s so heroic.”

The book relates the generosity shown by strangers from across the country who saw the CNN reports, of minor miracles and how the region rolled up its sleeves and rebuilt. It is also the story of this veteran reporter who, struggling to maintain her objectivity amid loss, traveled her own personal path from devastation to recovery.

“Kathleen Koch’s efforts in the national media ensured the Mississippi Gulf Coast was not forgotten,” stated football great and Mississippi native Brett Favre. “Time and time again, she reiterated the message that Katrina came ashore where we both grew up in Hancock County ... We will always be thankful to all the volunteers that gave of their time and resources to help. The random acts of kindness you will hear about in the book can’t help but renew your faith and humble you at the same time. Kathleen captures the challenges, victories and can-do attitude the people of the Mississippi coast exhibited after this horrible disaster. It is a great read.”

Noted author Douglas Brinkley, a Rice University history professor and longtime Bay St. Louis resident whose home along the Jordan River was destroyed by Katrina, stated, “A first-rate reporter, Koch got all the harrowing details exactly right: death-rattle winds, raging storm tide, flying metal debris and the god-awful feeling of rank abandonment.”

Koch became the de facto spokesperson for all Gulf Coast residents who felt they were abandoned, not only by the federal government, but also by the media in its rush to cover New Orleans. She is now a freelance journalist, having been laid off from CNN when a poor economy forced cutbacks across the board within several news organizations.

She said of her former employer, “They understand (the Gulf Coast) is a special place. Even though I’m not there, they’re carrying the banner forward.”

Koch returned to Bay St. Louis in May to celebrate her brother’s birthday. She saw a completed beach highway and some new construction, including the rebuilding of Trapani’s Eatery, a restaurant which had occupied the building that once housed her family’s Sunshine Ice Cream Parlor. Trapani’s was destroyed when Katrina roared ashore, and was temporarily reopened farther inland.

“I hope people understand it’s not just a Katrina book — a hurricane book. It’s about people, their emotions, coming to terms and finding the silver lining,” Koch said.

Can the book’s message be applied to how we deal with the oil spill crisis currently facing the Gulf Coast?

“Yes. Don’t give up. Don’t quit, no matter how bad things are,” she added. “You can get your life back on track. If you stick with it, you can come back. This whole region made it.”

A portion of the proceeds from each book sold will be donated to Pneuma Winds of Hope and LESM Coast Recovery Camps, two nonprofit groups still working on the Katrina recovery effort in Bay St. Louis.

1 comment:

I'm so pleased that other areas of the Gulf beyond NOLA are getting some attention of what they endured during Katrina. I look forward to seeing this book, and am pleased that so many Americans still volunteer to help rebuild the Gulf and for those who have not forgotten.

Paul HarrisAuthor, "Diary From the Dome, Reflections on Fear and Privilege During Katrina"